A 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped by a convicted sex offender but managed to escape has been banned from the volleyball court by her school.

Dezi Hughes, who has chosen to reveal her identity following her horrific ordeal, was told on Tuesday that she could not play the sport which she finds therapeutic.

Miss Hughes was abducted with her friend Kathlynn Shepard as they walked home from school in May in Dayton, Iowa. Miss Shepard was murdered and her body found in the Des Moines river a month later.

Healing process: Dezi Hughes, 12, who was abducted by a sex offender in May, has been banned from her high school's volleyball court because she was not wearing the correct outfit

Missed out: Miss Hughes, who is currently having therapy twice a week following her abduction, wore this outfit to school on volleyball day but was told it didn't fit the rules

Miss Hughes managed to escape from convict Michael Klunder and ran to get help. The sex offender later committed suicide.

As part of her healing process, the 12-year-old has been attending twice-weekly therapy sessions but also finds solace from her ordeal in sports, in particular horse riding and playing on her high school volleyball team.

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However on Tuesday, school authorities told the girl that she had not worn an appropriate outfit to school to be allowed to take part in the game.

Miss Hughes' shorts and long-sleeved top was not in keeping with the 'good conduct policy' of wearing more formal attire on sports days.

Dezi's mother told WHO-DT that she believes the school should cut her daughter a little slack after all that she had been through.

Kathlynn Shepard, 15, pictured as she exits a school bus shortly before her abduction on May 20, 2013

Jeanette Andrews said: 'Every therapist that we have seen so far tells us that she needs an extracurricular activity. Something that does not pertain to what happened.

'Therapy pertains to what happened. School pertains to what happened. They seen each other every day at school.'

However school superintendent Launi Dane stood firm, saying that there were rules that must be followed and there are 'certain expectations'.

Miss Hughes and her friend Kathlynn Shephard were lured into a pickup driven by registered sex offender Michael Klunder on May 20.

Miss Hughes later told investigators she and Kathlynn were taken to an agricultural facility for hog confinement.

Never forget: Memorials for her murdered friend around the small Iowa town are constant reminders to the 12-year-old

Long journey: The 12-year-old has turned to horse riding and sports to escape her ordeal

She was able to escape a short time later and ran to a rural residence for help. She was then taken to a Fort Dodge hospital and released.

The abduction spanned several hours, officials said, with Klunder's body being discovered nearly four hours after the girls were taken.

The following month, the body of 15-year-old Kathlynn wasfound in the Des Moines River.

Chief State Medical Examiner Dr Julia Goodin said Kathlynn's death was a homicide and that she died of 'multiple sharp and blunt force injuries'.

Authorities also found zip ties on Shephard matching ones used to restrain Miss Hughes, who managed to escape and call 911.

'Today our family has lost part of its soul - not just the Shepard family but the families of Dayton and all of Iowa,' the Shepards said in a statement in June.

Offender: Authorities say registered sex offender Michael Klunder kidnapped Kathlynn Shepard and her friend before murdering Kathlynn then killing himself four hours later

'An innocent, caring, fun-loving child was taken from this world long before her time.'

They said Klunder took the girls to a hog confinement facility where he worked, and the 12-year-old girl was able to get away.

Klunder, 42, was found dead hours later at another rural property. Authorities said he hanged himself.

Hundreds of officers and volunteers had searched for Kathlynn, but hopes of finding her alive were dampened when testing confirmed that blood found on Klunder's truck and at the hog building was Kathlynn's.

'We were robbed of some innocence in this whole thing,' said Webster County Sheriff James Stubbs after the body was discovered.

'We'll never quite be the same. Hopefully time will heal some of those wounds, but the awareness is a lot higher than it was before.'

Klunder had been released from prison in 2011 after serving 20 years for convictions in two separate Iowa kidnappings that occurred on back-to-back days in December 1991.

He spent several years in prison after being convicted on kidnapping and assault charges, including the 1991 abduction and assault of a Rudd woman and the kidnapping of two toddlers from an apartment complex in Charles City, according to the Mason City Globe Gazette. The girls, both 3, were found alive inside a dumpster.

He was released from a work release program in February 2011.

Lost: Kathlynn Shepard of Dayton, Iowa, pictured left and right, went missing on May 20, and her body was discovered in June in the Des Moines River near Boone

Missing: Volunteers took part in a massive search for missing teen Kathlynn Shepard before her body was found in June